School construction starts

The building of a £26 million school in Dagenham is now under way, forming part of a wider schools' investment programme in the borough.

The new Robert Clack Lymington Fields School will serve up to 1,350 pupils once completed in 2020 and will form part of Robert Clack School, which is on a separate site.

This means that the total school population will be around 4,000.

To mark the start of works, Evelyn Carpenter, cabinet member for educational attainment and school improvement, met with headmaster Russell Taylor; project manager of council-owned development company Be First, Darren Cutts; project leader of construction firm Mid Group, Mike O'Dell; and senior project sponsor of the Local Education Partnership, Richard Hallgate-Hills, at the site in October 2018.

The school will feature 42 classrooms in total including specialist ICT, music, science classrooms, and a sports hall along with two multi-use games areas.

Carpenter said: "Robert Clack is a highly popular school and the new Lymington Field campus will enable them to offer primary school places to parents for the first time.

"Investing in our schools is not just about bricks and mortar, it’s investing in this borough’s future and prosperity."